I’m always complaining about food bills. My family will testify how annoyed I get when they then waste the purchased food. “Do you know that people in England and Wales throw away 3.6 million tonnes of food each year?” I ask my three teenage boys, “and that 60 per cent of it is untouched, with salad, fruit and bread being the most commonly wasted?” I fail to engender outrage. But then we’re better off than most. At the weekend the charity, ‘Contact a Family’, warned that families in UK with disabled children are going without basics such as food after being left in financial "dire straits”.

The agency is providing relief to hungry children and families affected by the crisis and is preparing to increase its response. Rising global prices for food and fuel have hammered Haiti, which survives largely on imported goods.

Extreme rainfall in Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe has caused severe flooding with devastating consequences - including food shortages to come as farmers’ crops are washed away, warn international church and development bodies.